What are "ooops" shoes?
As any factory, importer, or wholesaler knows, sometimes "things" happen. A drop of glue, the wrong buckle, the sewing machine skips a thread, a leather defect that doesn't show up until after the shoe is "lasted." A ton of things can happen. Most of these are corrected immediately at the factory level. They clean , replace the buckles, or even just make an entire new shoe. Most "ooops" fall under the category of "finishing" problems. In an industrial setting, shoes often come off the line looking a tad ragged. The final crew works their cleaning magic and out comes a beautiful shoe.
But sometimes problems don't get noticed until we check them again here. Shoes with very noticeable cosmetic defects are NOT listed. We donate these to various charities, depending on the problem. And we never list (nor donate) any shoes with glitches that affect wear or durability or comfort.
To decide whether to put a pair of shoes into an "ooops" listing, our rule of thumb is that the problem should not be obviously noticeable to either the wearer of the shoes nor to anyone else from a normal distance.
If you have questions on a particular shoe, we're happy to elaborate the what's and why's of the "ooops" factor.